I want to make a case out of polycarbonate (forget the thread title) that will only house the motherboard, I'm going for a ghetto mod look anyways so I'm thinking a stand, with the PSU on a shelf, the actual case on a shelf, and the hard drive and DVD drive on shelves above that, suspended by thick rubber bands.
My idea for the case is a 13" wide, by 11" deep and about 7" tall. Tall enough for a full height graphics card and even the bigger tower coolers. Just deep enough for an 8800GTX, just in case. The case will sit with the motherboard on its back, parallel to the bottom panel, and the shelf. I will have two 120mm intake fans on the side oppsite the I/O ports on the motherboard, and one 120mm exhaust fan on the other side, above the I/O ports. That exhaust will handle the cpu and motherboard heat and I will also have an exhaust fan on the top panel above the PCI slots.
That means I will have to cut the panels to the right dimesnsions, cut the rectangle for the rear panel ports, spaces for the four 120mm fans, and the PCI card brackets. Also, holes to route power and sata cables from the box. I can salvage a motherboard tray and the PCI bracket from an old case, I'll probably paint them black as gray won't work in a clear case.
This is all a rough plan and I need your help on the details, the things I'm really having trouble with is how to get the PCI brackets in.
I would first make the bottom panel, 13x10, with the motherboard mounting holes, then two clean panels on either side, one with a hole to route cables through, the other two sides will have the fans, the I/O ports and the PCI brackets. Here's a pic to show what I have so far, I really need some help on this, including what kind of tools I should use and if acrylic isn't a good material I'm willing to go with something not see through like wood or sheet metal.
If that works, this case should have the best cooling performance out of any case, the case is so small that there isn't much air that needs to be moved, but I will have three full 120mm making nice wind tunnels, it could end up with a case temp the same as the room's ambient. I'm going for silence, with my Seasonic S12 on it's own, and some really quiet 120mm fans, I'm considering the Enermax Enlobal for all of them, I have one and it doesn't move much air but is completely silent, even with my ear up to it. The drives will be suspended so they won't be too loud. Part of the reason I'm only housing the motherboard is because I don't know what I'm doing and that will cut down on work A LOT.
Here are the plans.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/216/caseplansku6.gif
My idea for the case is a 13" wide, by 11" deep and about 7" tall. Tall enough for a full height graphics card and even the bigger tower coolers. Just deep enough for an 8800GTX, just in case. The case will sit with the motherboard on its back, parallel to the bottom panel, and the shelf. I will have two 120mm intake fans on the side oppsite the I/O ports on the motherboard, and one 120mm exhaust fan on the other side, above the I/O ports. That exhaust will handle the cpu and motherboard heat and I will also have an exhaust fan on the top panel above the PCI slots.
That means I will have to cut the panels to the right dimesnsions, cut the rectangle for the rear panel ports, spaces for the four 120mm fans, and the PCI card brackets. Also, holes to route power and sata cables from the box. I can salvage a motherboard tray and the PCI bracket from an old case, I'll probably paint them black as gray won't work in a clear case.
This is all a rough plan and I need your help on the details, the things I'm really having trouble with is how to get the PCI brackets in.
I would first make the bottom panel, 13x10, with the motherboard mounting holes, then two clean panels on either side, one with a hole to route cables through, the other two sides will have the fans, the I/O ports and the PCI brackets. Here's a pic to show what I have so far, I really need some help on this, including what kind of tools I should use and if acrylic isn't a good material I'm willing to go with something not see through like wood or sheet metal.
If that works, this case should have the best cooling performance out of any case, the case is so small that there isn't much air that needs to be moved, but I will have three full 120mm making nice wind tunnels, it could end up with a case temp the same as the room's ambient. I'm going for silence, with my Seasonic S12 on it's own, and some really quiet 120mm fans, I'm considering the Enermax Enlobal for all of them, I have one and it doesn't move much air but is completely silent, even with my ear up to it. The drives will be suspended so they won't be too loud. Part of the reason I'm only housing the motherboard is because I don't know what I'm doing and that will cut down on work A LOT.
Here are the plans.
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/216/caseplansku6.gif
Facebook
Twitter